LAUSR

Nature is blood “red in tooth and claw.” Right? That’s what Alfred Lord Tennyson said in 1850. And, Darwin agreed in 1859. Right? We at CTNS put together an entire book predicated on evolution as violent, as blood red in tooth and claw. What if it turns out that nature is actually nice? What if it turns out that highminded altruism and even neighbor-love has been bequeathed to human civilization by evolution? Might this change our outlook? For two plus years now Andrew Davison, a professor of Theology and Science at Cambridge University, has been fishing in the pond of biological mutualism. He has caught something on his line. “The phenomenon of mutualism—of mutually beneficial cooperation between organisms of different species—has come to a remarkable new prominence in the study of biology.” Davison reports on this catch in the lead article of this issue’s theme, “Biological Mutualism and Theology of Nature.” Is this just a fish story? An exaggeration? No, says Davison and his author colleagues. Can we theologians learn from nature? Yes, we can. At least according to Davison. “In theology, mutualism has bearing on many fronts.” In his concluding essay, Davison tells us that theologians can learn from